The only medicine company in the Gaza Strip was targeted during the Israeli offensive, causing the company half a million dollars in losses, executives said Monday.

The general manager of Middle East Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Laboratories, or Megapharm, told Ma'an that the company lost almost $500,000 after airstrikes hit equipment, raw material and electricity generators.

Dr. Marwan al-Astal added that the company produces only medicine, and Israel has no “excuse” for targeting it “because they know it is a medicine company.”

The company needs at least two months to recover and rebuild what has been destroyed by Israeli attacks.

UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krenpol urged on Sunday the international community to press ahead with the launch of an immediate investigation into the shelling of Gaza-based UN-run schools during the Israeli military offensive on the besieged enclave. Krenpol denounced during a press conference held in al-Tufah aid-distribution center, east of Gaza, the bombing of schools and their refugee civilians, who fled their targeted homes along the border areas. This is “a scar on everybody’s face”, Krenpol declared. More than 45 Palestinian civilians were killed while dozens sustained critical wounds in an Israeli attack on three UNRWA schools, sheltering Palestinian refugees who have been forcibly displaced from their own homes during the Israeli military operation rocking besieged Gaza since July 7. UNRWA is currently providing assistance to around one million Palestinians in Gaza, each of which has been traumatized by the Gaza siege and the ongoing Israeli onslaughts, Krenpol pointed out. He added that the Israeli offensive forced thousands of Palestinian civilians to depart their homes and seek shelter in UNRWA schools. UNRWA has been sheltering around 200,000 Palestinians in its schools and relief agencies and providing some 300,000 others with aid materials. “We have seen an unprecedented sweeping destruction targeting different neighborhoods, most notably Beit Hanoun, Khuza’a, and Shujaiya, among many others.” It is high time the aggression came to an end and the reconstruction of Gaza started, he maintained. He vowed the UNRWA will never let Palestinians down and will always stand by them, no matter the circumstances, expressing hope that a permanent ceasefire would be reached soon. “We’ve just paid visits to the homes of 11 members of UNRWA personnel killed during the offensive. Yet we have to transmit a message of hope, love, and freedom to the Palestinian people,” he further stated.

photo: the Palestinian News Network (PNN)A full recovery from the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza will be impossible, according to Oxfam, unless Israel’s blockade is lifted permanently. Oxfam recently held a demonstration in London's Parliament Square in highlighting the suffering which the ongoing blockade causes, and has released official statements in this regard.

The Palestinian News Network (PNN) reports that Oxfam, along with other members of the Disasters and Emergency Committee, is delivering urgent humanitarian aid but that notes that reconstruction efforts have not yet begun in earnest.

The need to rebuild Gaza's destroyed civilian infrastructure alone makes it more urgent than ever to lift the blockade.

The entirety of the region's civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. Such measures contsitute collective punishment and are illegal under international law.

Oxfam is now challenging the UK and international governments, says the PNN, in order to clarify what they are doing to bring an end to these crimes, noting that this the best step toward securing a lasting peace between opposing factions.

Head of Oxfam in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, Nishant Pandey, was quoted to say that: “The international community will be guilty of a dereliction of duty if it stands by and watches the blockade continue to impose further misery on Palestinians in Gaza. Israel does have legitimate security concerns, but punishing everyone in Gaza will not achieve lasting peace and security for either Palestinians or Israelis. Enough is enough – the blockade must be lifted now.”

Over the last few weeks, the world has reacted in shock as it witnessed both indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza and disproportionate attacks from Israel which resulted in enormous civilian casualties.

WARNING: Extremely graphic images linked above.

*Note that default Hamas rockets are not equipped with a guidance system and basically consist of hollow tubes stuffed full of dynamite, which land mostly in unpopulated areas. Palestinians have no official army, navy or air force to speak of and PA security is heavily coordinated with that of the Israelis.

Much of Gaza has once again been turned to rubble, the PNN further reports, with over 100,000 people having had their houses destroyed and been left displaced (homeless). Gaza must be rebuilt, and for the last time.

The destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza is reportedly the worst Oxfam has witnessed in nearly 20 years of working in in the region. At least 15 hospitals and 16 clinics have been damaged – including four supported by Oxfam.

More than 200 schools have been damaged, with 25 completely destroyed. Gaza’s only power plant has been destroyed. Before the current crisis, Gazans were running on 8 hours of electricity per day, at best.

Wells, pipelines, and reservoirs have suffered crippling damages, leaving half of Gaza’s 1.8 million people without access to clean water and the other half receiving water only every five days.

Up to 90 per cent of the water extracted from Gaza’s aquifer is not even fit for human consumption -- some residents regularly spend up to a third of their income on drinking water. The recent bombings have so severely damaged water and sanitation infrastructure that raw sewage is now spilling onto the streets and risking a health crisis.

Beyond basic humanitarian concerns, the blockade on the Strip -- backed by Egypt since 2007 -- has severely limited Gaza’s ability to rebuild its economy in the aftermath of the current devastation.

PNN reports that Gaza was dependent upon its exports of strawberries to UK supermarkets, flowers to the Netherlands, as well as an abundance of goods to Israel and the West Bank. Today, Israeli restrictions have cut off trade to Israel and to the West Bank – Gaza’s natural markets – and exports are at just two per cent of pre-blockade levels.

Without access to external markets, Gaza’s once vibrant economy is now condemned to a future of aid dependency.

Nishant Pandey additionally stated: “Even before the current crisis, Gaza’s isolation was strangling its economy. There is a closing window of opportunity for international pressure to end this blockade, and the UK government should play a vital role. The people of this region deserve good news, and lifting the blockade is a necessary step toward a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”

Israel reveals its true colors and true aspirations every time it attacks Gaza (or any other self-perceived enemy) as being the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, even to the degree – as the references above indicate – to the act of genocide. The western world/Washington consensus group are guilty of enormous war crimes in their full complicit support of Israel, regardless of the rhetoric expressing their concern over the deaths, while they continue to supply Israel with its military needs. From all the terror inflicted by Israel on the Gaza Palestinians I can only ask what kind of God would permit this? Is this permitted by the God that ‘gave’ the land to Israel? For a people who were to be a shining light for others? Could God not as equally well take the same land away as the atrocities against other human beings increase in magnitude and frequency? How many rationalizations does it take to blind oneself to the savagery and murder of innocent citizens, women, and children? How is it that the Gospel of Israel is so readily inculcated into a whole nation such that they cheer the deaths of the ‘other’? And how does that same Gospel spreads its wings over many in the western Washington consensus who somehow remain blind to the human savagery and misery of Israeli actions? Israel will certainly survive militarily as they have many nuclear weapons with various delivery systems. But can such a militarized racist society survive its own internal contradictions for long? Can the false rhetoric of wanting peace, of being the eternal victims, of being surrounded by hateful ‘others’ continue to over-ride the obvious brutality of the various Gaza operations? What can the world not see about the past seven decades of Israeli intentions to ethnically cleanse ‘their’ land of the Palestinian people? The current “Defensive Edge” operation is not an anomaly, but part of the ongoing demonization of the people of Gaza, with the mainstream media/political rhetoric trying to create a split between the citizens and Hamas. It is all a part of the ethnic cleansing process, really having very little to do with defending themselves against Hamas’ errant rockets, or protecting themselves from terrorists of any stripe. The West Bank has been subdued, aided and assisted by the Vichy dictatorship rule of Abbas working along with the Israeli forces. Gaza has refused to accommodate the wishes of Israel by folding its hands and acquiescing to all the Israeli demands; instead, with nowhere to go, and resistance obviously not being futile, they struggle against the overwhelming firepower of Israel. The many demonstrations around the world indicate two significant trends. The first is the obvious that Israel does not really care about anyone else’s opinion and will operate mainly within the needs of their internal political structures and their long term goals of occupying all the lands of Palestine. The second is that perhaps the world is waking up with abhorrence to the atrocities committed by Israel against the people of Gaza, an awakening that has slumbered for years, but with this renewed violent episode in a time when western/Washington consensus rule is fully showing its true colors of political-economic-military dominance of the rest of the world. This has led to increased awareness globally about the militarization and domination of people’s lives, about the racist nature of the Israeli attacks, and about the lack of validity about Israel’s claims of victimhood and its desire for peace. Perhaps the fall-out from this will be in terms of ‘blow back’. The boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement will very likely receive more attention, not so much from governments, but from an increasing number of concerned citizens. With that will go the recognition that what Israel says, its ‘hasbara’ attempts to persuade others what a wonderful place Israel is, will fall now upon ears deafened by the rockets, missiles, and bombs that have fallen on Gaza – and the resulting screams, tears, and cries that are seldom heard within mainstream media. A highly militarized Israeli society guarding Palestinians in bantustan like areas could survive for quite some time. Hope carries forward that somehow the Israelis will create their own fully dysfunctional state that will be forced to change its actions (BDS, pariah status…..) and seek a non-violent solution by accommodating all peoples within its boundaries.- Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out Wednesday at the UN Human Rights Council, accusing it of granting "legitimacy to terror organizations" by investigating Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

"UNHRC gives legitimacy to murderous terror organizations like Hamas and Daash (Islamic State)," he said, accusing the rights body of overlooking "massacres" committed elsewhere in the Middle East in favor of investigating Israel for defending itself against rocket attacks from Gaza.

In response to Netanyahu's comments, a spokesman for the 47-member rights council said the inquiry it launched last month will probe both sides in the Gaza conflict, which killed more than 1,950 Palestinians -- the vast majority of whom were civilians -- as well as 67 in Israel, 95 percent of whom were soldiers.

"The resolution establishing the Commission of Inquiry clearly states the commission will investigate all violations of international human rights and humanitarian law since the current military operations began in mid-June," Rolando Gomez told AFP.

"This directly implies that both parties will be subjected to a thorough investigation."

Netanyahu spoke just days after the rights council named Canadian international law expert William Schabas to run the inquiry, in a move which sparked fury in Israel, with officials denouncing him as biased.

"Instead of investigating Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens and its use of Gazans as human shields, instead of probing the massacre (President Bashar al-)Assad is perpetrating against the people in Syria or that Daash is carrying out among the Kurds, the UN decided to come and investigate Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East ... that is acting legitimately to defend its citizens against murderous terror," he said.

"First let them carry out an investigation in Damascus, in Baghdad, in Tripoli, let them go and see Daash and the Syrian army and Hamas. It is there, not here, that they will find war crimes," Netanyahu said.

The right council's commission is due to publish its findings in March 2015.

The Israeli leader accused Schabas of having "already decided" that Hamas was not guilty of anything and that there was "nothing to investigate there."

In a series of interview with the Israeli media, Schabas on Tuesday defended himself against allegations of bias.

Asked by Channel 2 television if he would describe Hamas as a "terror organization," Schabas said it would be "inappropriate" to answer such a question, and urged Israel to participate in the inquiry.

"It is important for Israel to cooperate because the allegations have a great deal to do with the use of force, the targeting, and the proportionality of that targeting, the identification of military objectives," he said, noting that Israel had described its use of force as "proportionate."

Israel has long had stormy relations with the UNHRC, which it accuses of having a built-in bias against Israel.

In January 2012, it became the first country to refuse to attend a periodic review of its human rights record. And two months later, it cut all ties with the council over its plans to probe how Jewish settlements were harming Palestinian rights.

In a separate development, Israel's state comptroller on Wednesday ordered an inquiry into the Gaza offensive, a spokesman said.

Media reports said the investigation would consider the operation in view of both Israeli and international law.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has denounced the mounting Israeli aggression against Gaza civilians, calling for an immediate ceasefire and holding Israel responsible for the repercussion of its genocides, pointing out the non-applicability of statutory limitations to such war crimes. The OIC welcomed in a statement late on Tuesday the decision issued by the UN Human Rights Council on July 23, 2014, slamming the Israeli occupation over the Gaza offensive. The OIC urged the UN to immediately put into effect the terms of the resolution, particularly assigning an international independent committee to urgently investigate any potential infringements to the provisions of the international humanitarian law in Gaza. The organization expressed deep disappointment at the U.S. voting against the resolution and slammed the reluctance of the Arab countries to back the decision up, which gives Israel so large a space to step up its military aggressions and breach international laws.

Israeli army sources say pictures of a devastated Gaza neighborhood have been distributed among Israeli soldiers as a memento. The photos, showing Gaza’s Shijaiyah district before and after Israel’s destructive attacks, were circulated among soldiers who were engaged in the aggression in the Palestinian coastal enclave. On July 20, dozens of people lost their lives and many others injured in Israel’s brutal massacre of Palestinians in Gaza's eastern Shejaiya district. Witnesses said bodies of Palestinian women and children were lying on the ground after Israel attacked the Shejaiyah neighborhood in Gaza, forcing thousands of panicked civilians to flee. The Israeli army reportedly prevented ambulances and emergency services from reaching the area. Satellite images provided by a United Nations training organization also showed the damage to buildings from Israeli airstrikes across Gaza. The images, snapped by the Pleiades satellite and published by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, compared the way a northeastern section of Gaza looked on July 6 — two days before the start of Israel’s offensive — and on July 25. This comes as a senior Israeli official says the ongoing indirect talks with Palestinian delegates in Cairo on a lasting truce have made no progress.

According to the unnamed official, gaps between the two sides are still very wide. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was expected to discuss the Cairo talks with his security aides on Tuesday, called off the session. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are to discuss Israel's blockade on Gaza. The lifting of the blockade has been one of the main Palestinian demands. The Egyptian-mediated talks have entered their second day while a 72-hour truce, which started at 2100 GMT on Sunday, is in effect on the ground in Gaza. Over 1,940 Palestinians, including 470 children, have lost their lives and nearly 10,000 have been wounded since the Israeli military unleashed fatal assaults on the densely-inhabited strip on July 8.

A three-member panel appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate allegations of humanitarian law violations during Israel's Gaza assault will start working in the Gaza Strip next month.

Ibrahim Khreisha, Palestine’s representative at the UN, told Ma'an that William Schabas will be heading the panel along with Canadian international law professor and Doudou Diene of Senegal, the UN's former Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism.

Another woman will be replacing British-Lebanese lawyer Amal Alamuddin, who has declined the UN's appointment.

“A team of seven to eight members will be assigned by the High Commissioner’s office to be working alongside with the panel,” Khreisha said.

Khreisha added that the international panel will enter Gaza through Egypt but that they will not be able to enter the West Bank or Jerusalem because Israel refused to cooperate with them.

He added: “There is an intention that Gazans' testimonies will be aired live, as in the Goldstone report.”

The panel will hear reports of Palestinian and international human rights institutions of “Israeli war crimes that occurred in the West Bank before the offensive on the Gaza Strip which started with detaining and killing more than 11 Palestinians, including the kidnapping, burning and killing of teen Muhammad Abu Khdeir,” Khreisha added.

“The escorting team will be investigating all humanitarian and international laws violations since June 13, 2014.”

The panel will submit a report by March 2015 to the Human Rights Council of the UN.

Some 1,945 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip and 11 in the West Bank following the kidnapping of three Israeli settlers.

The blue plastic teddy bear bank belonging to his child, Mohammed, was broken open and coins looted by Israeli troops, he saidHamas on Tuesday welcomed the UN decision to appoint a panel to investigate possible violations of humanitarian law during Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip, a statement said.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement that Hamas welcomed the move, which he said would be a probe into Israeli "war crimes on Gaza."

The UN Human Rights Council on Monday appointed a three-member panel to look into possible humanitarian law violations throughout the assault.

Through agent of her fiance, George Clooney, the British-Lebanese human rights lawyer denies reports that she will serve on inquiry commission.

Amal Alamuddin, the British-Lebanese human rights lawyer who is engaged to George Clooney, has turned down a United Nations offer to investigate war crimes in Gaza.

The UN’s Geneva-based Human Rights Council announced on Monday that she would serve on a three-member commission of inquiry looking into possible violations of the rules of war during the Israeli offensive against Hamas. But hours later Clooney’s Hollywood agent, Stan Rosenfield, issued a statement on Alamuddin’s behalf saying she had declined the post because she was too busy. “I am horrified by the situation in the occupied Gaza Strip, particularly the civilian casualties that have been caused, and strongly believe that there should be an independent investigation and accountability for crimes that have been committed,” said the statement. “I was contacted by the UN about this for the first time this morning. I am honoured to have received the offer, but given existing commitments – including eight ongoing cases – unfortunately could not accept this role. I wish my colleagues who will serve on the commission courage and strength in their endeavours.” According to the Associated Press, which first reported the appointment – a story run by the Guardian, among others – Gabon ambassador Baudelaire Ndong Ella, who is president of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council, made the announcement of her appointment. The report said Alamuddin would serve alongside Doudou Diene of Senegal, a lawyer who has filled UN posts on racism and human rights in Ivory Coast, and Canada’s William Schabas, an international law professor at Middlesex University in London.The UN’s top human rights body did not immediately respond to a request for clarification over why it announced the inclusion of Clooney’s fiancee. Rosenfield told the Guardian he had little to add to Alamuddin’s statement. The UN contacted her by phone, he believed, and he said she was surprised by the subsequent press reports about the apparent appointment. “That’s why she responded so quickly.” The Beirut-born barrister, who is fluent in French and Arabic, has represented Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, and Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister of Ukraine. A graduate of St Hugh’s College at Oxford and New York University School of Law, Alamuddin, 36, works out of the Doughty Street Chambers in London, specialising in human rights and international law. According to the chambers’ website, she has served as counsel to the inquiry led by UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson QC, into the use of drones, and as an adviser to Kofi Annan. Her engagement to Clooney, 52, was announced in April. The star of Ocean’s Eleven has campaigned for liberal causes in the US and human-rights causes abroad, notably in Darfur. Navi Pillay, the UN’s top human rights official, accused Israel of not doing enough to protect civilians in Gaza and suggested war crimes may have been committed. She also accused Hamas of “indiscriminate attacks” on Israel. Hollywood, which has close ties to Israel, has remained largely mute on Gaza. The few who have criticised Israel, such as Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Rihanna, have been strongly rebuked by other celebrities, prompting several to backtrack. Sam Asi, a Hollywood-based Palestinian reporter for the BBC and UK Screen, contrasted the reticence over Gaza with the Arab spring, when artists condemned oppressive regimes. “Now, they shrink when I mention Gaza, claiming that they don’t understand what is going on. No one dares say anything. Supporting freedom for Palestinians or empathising with the suffering in Gaza, one risks being labeled antisemitic.” He pressed one star, a Unicef ambassador, about the death of children, but she declined, said Asi, “saying that she is no expert on this matter and doesn’t want her words to be misinterpreted”.

The Lebanese-born British lawyer was one of three top experts appointed to a commission of inquiry by the UN Human Rights Council, which ordered the investigation last month.

The other members of the inquiry team are Doudou Diene of Senegal, who has previously served as the UN's watchdog on racism and on post-conflict Ivory Coast, and Canadian international lawyer William Schabas.

In the face of fierce opposition from Israel and the United States, the 47-member UN Human Rights Council voted on July 23 to create the commission of inquiry.

The decision came after a marathon seven-hour emergency session of the top UN human rights body, where the Israelis and the Palestinians traded accusations over war crimes.

The probe team has been tasked with reporting back to the council by March.

Alamuddin's family, who are from Lebanon's Druze community, fled to Britain during the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

The 36-year-old, who is fluent in Arabic, French and English, studied at a French school in London and holds degrees from Oxford and New York University.

Alamuddin is no stranger to international investigations and conflicts.

She worked with the international tribunal examining the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri and assisted ex-UN head Kofi Annan in efforts to make peace in Syria.

Among her legal clients have been Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the controversial founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange.

The UN Human Rights Council has appointed a three-member panel to investigate allegations of humanitarian law violations during Israel's Gaza assault, reports said Monday.

The commission of inquiry will be headed by Canada’s William Schabas, an international law professor at Middlesex University in London, the UN council said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg news.

The other members are Amal Alamuddin, a British-Lebanese lawyer, and Doudou Diene of Senegal, the UN’s former Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, the New York-based news agency reported.

Throughout the ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip, perhaps no phrase has featured as prominently or persistently in the lexicon of Israeli propaganda as “human shields.” Repeated in stentorian fashion by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a heavily regimented army of 10,000 public relations flacks, the phrase has been ruthlessly deployed to shield Israel from responsibility for the bloodbath it has caused in Gaza. Israel has killed 1,800 civilians in a matter of weeks, including some 430 children, but it was Hamas that forced them to do it. Like so many Zionist accusations against Palestinian society (“They only understand force,” “They teach their children to hate,” “They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”) the human shields slander is a projection. Israel is the most militarized society on earth, with soldiers and military installations honeycombed throughout its civil society. With full military conscription for all men and women and reserve duty required for all Jews until they reach their 40s, Jewish Israelis alternate constantly between the role of civilian and soldier, blurring the line between the two. Within one of Tel Aviv’s most densely populated neighborhoods sits Ha’Kirya, the army’s headquarters, a gigantic complex of monolithic buildings that house the offices where attacks on Gaza are planned. The uniformed officers and soldiers who work inside take lunch in the cafes and shop in the malls surrounding their offices, embedding themselves among the civilian population. A military base is nestled in the middle of the campus of Haifa University while Hebrew and Tel Aviv Universities offer military officers free tuition, encouraging their enrollment and allowing them to carry weapons on campus. It is hard to find a henhouse, flophouse, or fieldhouse anywhere in Israel without some kind of military presence. In an editorial for the Israeli daily, Yedioth Aharonot, veteran Israeli military advisor Giora Eiland argued in favor of collectively punishing Gaza’s civilian population. “In order to guarantee our interests versus the other side’s demands, we must avoid the artificial, wrong and dangerous distinction between the Hamas people, who are ‘the bad guys,’ and Gaza's residents, which are allegedly ‘the good guys.’” Naturally, Eiland failed to consider the terrible implications of eliminating the distinction between civilians and the armed factions that move among them: If his logic were inverted to apply to Israeli society, where civilians are soldiers and soldiers are civilians, almost every Jewish Israeli citizen could be considered a legitimate target. Most vulnerable among the Jewish Israeli public are residents of the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. Many of these working class development towns and kibbutzim were planted during the 1950s in place of the Palestinians who had just been forcibly expelled. In al-Majdal Asqalan, now known as Ashkelon, Jewish immigrants from the Middle East were literally trucked in to replace the Palestinians who had been held within a barbed wire enclosure before being outcasted to Gaza. Today, these largely neglected communities form a human wall against the demographic threat tucked behind a high-tech cordon sanitaire just to their south. Not only do Israel’s southern communities exist under the threat of rocket and mortar attacks from those they displaced, they are routinely used as shelters and temporary bases by the Israeli army. Renan Raz, a 26-year-old waiter and anti-occupation activist now living in Tel Aviv, remembers the anguish he experienced when the army arrived in Dorot, the southern kibbutz where he was born and raised. It was the height of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli assault that left over 1400 Palestinian Gazans dead, mostly civilians, between December 2008 and January 2009. “Most of the days soldiers were fighting in the Gaza Strip in the morning and in the evening they were coming back to our kibbutz, bringing their weapons there, they were sleeping there, and sometimes they were practicing [military drills] in the fields, in the kibbutz grass — they were hiding there and making plans,” Raz told me. “The way I saw it, they were using us as human shields.” Raz recalled, “We were right on the border of the Gaza Strip and they were practicing in the fields with weaponry, whether it’s with their rifle or armored vehicles. I could hear explosions [from the fields] while they were practicing and maybe even shooting things into Gaza.” “We are a sick military society,” he continued. “You can’t say Hamas is using their civilians as a human shield when it’s obvious that our army is using all of us as human shields. And those of us who live near the Gaza Strip are definitely the biggest human shields.” Raz remembers being almost alone in raising questions about the presence of the soldiers. “People were so happy, they were really proud of them. Each day after they came out of the Gaza Strip, in the [kibbutz] dining room, if it was lunch or dinner, there was food waiting for them,” he said. “They came into our houses and used our showers and relaxed there. People wrote letters to them after they left the kibbutz thanking them for risking their lives for us. Not only in the kibbutz but all over Israel they are seen as the most sacred thing. People treat them as angels, as people who put their own lives at risk so civilians can live at peace.” Having already refused army service in defiance of his country’s militarist ethos, Raz turned solidly against the attack on Gaza. “Whenever there was a rocket alarm, all the people around me were shouting, Death to leftists! and Death to Arabs! And I just wanted to have a better life for everyone. I don’t want to be intimidated by the rockets but I also don’t want the people in Gaza to be bombed and massacred for no reason. I realized that this is the oppressed and the oppressor — it wasn’t self-defense.” During the current assault on Gaza, Israeli forces have returned to the communities surrounding Gaza to bivouac and stage attacks. However, the fear of “terror tunnels” and rockets has led many of the local residents to flee, leaving virtual ghost towns in their wake. In a recorded message broadcast on July 29 by al-Aqsa television, Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades general commander Mohammad Daif declared that Gaza fighters were exclusively targeting active duty Israeli military personnel and avoiding attacks on civilians. So far, the Qassam Brigades have killed 65 Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians, one Thai worker, and wounded a kibbutz owl.